Tuesday, June 30, 2015

The beautiful leaves and petals of the painting Feuilles, 1928 by Seraphine Louis seems to be shimmering and moving. It is vibrant and full of life. A perfect image to kick off summer, with the abundance of flowers blooming all around. The reds and pinks, the oranges and yellows, the greens and whites... these colors feel so alive. Obviously, you agreed because there was so much creativity happening!

Monday, June 29, 2015

Happy Monday everyone! I hope it's the beginning of another smashing week for you :-) And it's the last week of jewellery packaging! What will be July's theme, I hear you ask? Well, you'll just have to wait because for now, it's still jewellery packaging.........

Sunday, June 28, 2015

I have a bead crush, it's a long standing one - but every once in a while the flames are fanned again and I can't get enough wood beads. I love the warmth of wood. I love that it's lightweight. It connects my designs directly to nature. And they happen to perfectly compliment my line of Humblebeads. Wood beads also let you work with larger pieces without adding weight to your jewelry.

Tips for Working with Wood Beads

Balance - Since wood is so light add in stones or ceramic beads to add a little weight to your jewelry. For bracelets add one or two heavy beads at the bottom of the bracelet so the back of the design will stay weighted on your wrist. And for necklaces, add a few heavier pieces at the center so the necklace doesn't shift around too much.

Friday, June 26, 2015

Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive, we offer a prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard and tell us what you think. The following week a winner is chosen at random from all eligible entries.

Welcome to My Studio!! It is a beautiful sunny summer day today!! I have been working hard on three fronts lately and I will give you a brief peek into all of these doings.

Front Number 1

I have been doing a lot of glazing in the last few days. I was having difficulty getting these toggle clasps to stay on the skewer sticks because the stringing holes are just a bit too big. In desperation I came up with using my fingers to touch up the clear glaze!!

Not recommended unless you are in a pinch for something to hold your pieces!!! LOL!!

Why so busy you ask???I have been making work to take to a very special art festival in our area called The Mare's Wares Art Fest. It hashappened every year for the past 7 years on Canada Day!! That means July 1. This year that is a Wednesday. Lots of folks cross the St. Lawrence River on one of several bridges, depending where they live in Canada and come on over. It is a very fun event with many vendors, live bands, demonstrations and fun activities. I will have an assortment of my ceramic pendants ready to turn into a simple necklace

Some of the ceramic pendants I will have for simple necklaces.

Continuing with the Leaf theme this month, I made these little leaves all with the same texture plate I made from a small Oak leaf. I plan to turn them into earring. Love how they came out.It has been quite a while since I did a show, so I am a bit nervous. Luckily I know many of the artists who will be there. I am looking forward to a fun day.Front Number 2

Tonight is the opening of the St. Lawrence County Arts Council Members Exhibition at the Gibson Gallery on the campus of Potsdam College. I was so pleased that our arts council collaborated on this event. It has been an opportunity for all members to have their art work exhibited. Each member was eligible to have one piece shown and then possibly a second or third one would be juried in. I am pleased to have two of my necklaces on display.

Flamenco necklace by Mary Harding

Necklace by Mary Harding Mrs. Senn's Fish Inspired by a short story titled Mrs. Senn
written by Jumpa Lahiri

I credit our arts council with getting me going on selling my work. They were so encouraging and best of all they gave all members a venue for selling by opening a store front. They taught us about the business of selling. Now that they no longer have the shop, they have found other ways of providing artists in this area with opportunities for being seen and for selling work. Tonight being one of them. I am so grateful for their work.

Front Number 3
I am taking an online class with Keith Lo Bue called Steeling Beauty through Artful Gathering
.We use this humble annealed steel rebar wire for all of our lessons.( see picture below)

steel rebar wire

I just love this wire since it is soft and fairly easy to work. And the way it looks when it has been forged and polished is next to sublime!!

Keith is a wonderful teacher with a great sense of humor. This is my second on line class with him. I hope to share some of my creations in a post later in the summer. So far I have watched all the videos and done some experimenting. Nothing yet too enlightening. But I really enjoy forging on my steel anvil. So satisfying.

Well that is a quick look at what has been happening inside my studio so far this summer. Now on to the question we ask each time:

When I was writing about our arts council, I thought I would like to know more about how other art councils work . So here is my question for today. Are you involved in your local/state arts council? How do they extend help and services to artists in your area? I would really be interested to know.Your comment can also be about any kind of group that helps out artist since I don't know if all states have arts councils.

All related comments will automatically be entered in a drawing to win a $20.00 gift certificate to my Etsy shop.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

This bracelet focal has just the right shades of coral and pink in it for this month's challenge painting. I like the asymmetry of this style and the fact that it is completely balanced. That is sometimes hard to pull off in asymmetrical styles. The brass leaves lead your eye and provide movement while referencing he brass links on the opposite side. And the graduated rounds bring in the colors. I just noticed the tiny little bird bead and the way the bloom on the clasp. Just delightful!

Pretty please make sure that
you post a link in your Pinterest description so that I have someplace
to attribute the picture to! And don't forget to tell us about those art
beads!

Deadline to get your pictures posted to the Pinterest boards for the creation of the Monthly Challenge Recap post is June 28th

TIP: If you upload your photo
to pin it rather than pin it from your blog or shop, edit the pin (the
little pencil button) and add your link as the source. Save your edits.
This will allow us to click directly on your photo and go to your blog
or shop to read more about your entry.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Artist Beads Inspired by the painting Feuilles by Louis SeraphineHere are some of the wonderful art beads that have been posted to the Art Bead Scene Pinterest Board in response to the June Challenge painting, Feuilles, by Louis Seraphine. All just stunning!!As in past months, this post is about meeting some of these art bead artist who have contributed. You may remember meeting Barbara Handelsman of BH Claysmith and Cate Van Alphen of Fulgorine Beads in previous posts. I have highlighted their names with links to those posts.

This month I am please to introduce you to Katherine Thompson. She tells me she has been an artist all her life making paintings and sculpture. More recently she began making jewelry and now is focusing on making art beads and jewelry components.I asked Katherine what inspired her about this months ABS Challenge painting (pictured below) Feuilles by Louis SeraphineKatherine told me: When I saw the painting there was no second thought for me, I love leaves. When I was young I had the wonderful opportunity to live on 10 acres with horses, cows, an assortment of fowl, cats, dogs, gardens and huge trees. I used to walk around our property with a bird book and a tree book. I would try to identify them, I am a nerd. I love to learn.I am drawn to using my hands so I absolutely love shaping copper. Little sculptures. The leaves in this painting fit round peg into round hole for me. I could spend the rest of my life on leaves inspired from this painting.Katherine likes to work with copper and describes her process:I am drawn to using my hands so I absolutely love shaping copper. Little sculptures.I love enamel work too and have a tendency to improvise to get what I want. Somewhat like the featured artist I used what I have been playing with to get what I wanted. I used the Utee melting pot with the clear embossing enamel and shaved pastels on to my leaves. I had the freedom to mix, leave chunks, dots, drools, swirls, make my own colors. In this way I was able to apply a more painterly approach to my work and truly create a one of a kind piece.Some more of Katherine's Leaves: Copper Leaf by Katherine Thompson Barn Burd DesignsCopper Leaf Pendant ~ Green Embossing Enamels by Katherine Thompson of Barn Burd DesignsYou can read more about Katherine on her blog where she explains her business name and how she is changing over all of her sites so they will be in sync and visit her Etsy Shop to see more of her work.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Art Beads by Pat Handschuh for the June ABS Challenge Polymer ClayThese stunning beads were posted yesterday afternoon to our Pinterest Board and I did not have time to speak with the artist Pat Handschuh of The Color of Dreams but wanted to include them and give you some links where you can get to know her work better.She has an Etsy shop called The Color of Dreams Boutique where she sells her amazing handmade polymer clay beads. I learned from her shop profile that she has been making art beads and jewelry for over 10 years. I have included a couple of pictures of her beautiful beads.

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Judging by the all the entries for the Art Bead Scene Challenge this month, I see that many of us have been inspired by Louis Seraphine's Painting titled Leaves. Today Heather Powers and I are taking the challenge too!! You can see what we made by clicking on our blogs listed below!!Heather PowersMary Harding

Friday, June 19, 2015

Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive, we offer a prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard and tell us what you think. The following week a winner is chosen at random from all eligible entries.Congratulations to Wendy of the Crafter's Apprentice! You've won a few of Rebecca's handwoven beaded beads from the Curious Bead Shop. Woot! Email Rebecca your address and she'll get those right out to you.

So hello again...Welcome back to the Humblebeads studio. Whatcha' doin' this summer? Finding time to play with beads, working on selling at summer shows or has your creativity gone into perfecting s'mores by campfires and long days at the beach? Yeah, I wish that's what I was doing too.

What I am up to is working very hard this summer. This has been such a busy year and it's only going to get busier.

I'm currently working on book number 3, the Beadmaking Lab! Getting ready to teach my next online class - starts Monday. (You can still sign up!)I have a trunk show in July and BeadFest in August.Finalizing samples and details for two fall retreats. I have lots of ideas for new beads floating around that are begging to be made and lots of pictures to take to list the new beads from Bead & Button.Breathe, girl, breath...

And now I'm adding another spice to the mix, why not, right? I've been inspired to start creating simple kits for easy art bead projects. I've done these over the years and I get asked to make new ones all the time. I'm not a big fan of the putting the kits together part, but that's why I have an assistant! I do love the designing part and of course, the shopping!!!I'm working on a weekly limited edition kit for the summer, I have some really fun projects planned.

I'm also going to be offering kits through Interweave for my Color Canvas column projects, super excited about that.

These Birds and Berry kits will be available tomorrow in my Etsy shop.

So let's get to this week's question.

Is summer a time of super-charged creativity or is your jewelry making time being eaten away by summer fun and activities?